score: 8.5/10

PROS:Beautiful graphics bring the Middle-earth world aliveExcellent combat mechanics complete with gory finishersOpen world begs to be explored

CONS:Narrative is convoluted and requires extensive knowledge to understandNemesis System isn't fully realizedGame relies on a short list of reused ideas, not very revolutionary

Middle-eARTH: sHADOW OF mORDOR

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a little bit more than just a cheap Assassin’s Creed clone. While the game certainly nods its head towards Ubisoft’s seminal (if supersaturated) franchise, from which it borrows heavily in terms of control and playstyle, the similarities end there as Shadow of Mordor does a fantastic job of creating a unique experience instead of relying on familiarity as a crutch. The campaign is evanescent with a story that requires a PhD in Tolkien lore to understand, but sublime graphics and a complex battle system fashion a title that’s pure fantasia. The story is decidedly contrived and falls into the cliché black hole of “your wife and child have been murdered and now you must avenge them through sheer brutality to vindicate yourself and allay your rage.” The yarn is laughably transparent but easy to digest, serving as an appropriate backdrop to carve out a halfway decent narrative. In an interesting twist Talion, the character whose guise you don, is also a victim of the murderous Black Hand of Sauron, an uber-evil entity of origins I’m still in the dark over. He is revived and subsequently possessed by the wraith Celebrimbor, intrinsically linking the two to follow divergent aspirations against a common foe. The story is revealed via cut scenes as you tackle story-specific missions, but in the early game the tale is a bewildering mess. The game is blemished by clunky controls but the stellar graphics and sound help hide the flaws, imperfections you actively have to seek out to notice. The Nemesis System is a prominent mechanic though I found it insipid and underdeveloped the more I played. Even with the noticeable problems it’s a title I couldn't tear myself away from, returning like a crack addict aware my fixation was turning unhealthy. You’re always pushing to complete one more story point or finish one more side quest; even entering the game just to waste time chasing noting in particular is entertainment enough. When the feeling that you’re playing a knockoff subsides you’ll find that Shadow of Mordor is competent in its own right and a great start to the new console generation.

graphics

Monolith obviously took its time creating the world you explore, evident in the rich textures, fantastic vistas of distant structures shrouded in atmospheric haze (thanks to a long draw distance), and complex landscape. The standard green and brown fantasy-grit color palette conveys a sense of ruin caused by Sauron’s blighting army. Activating “Wraith Mode” drapes the screen in a swirling blue mist that adds a nice visual touch to an otherwise muddy landscape. Animations are fluid and dynamic; watching Talion swirl through combat never got old. Interaction with the world, scaling buildings, engaging in sword fights, and pulling off stealth kills is displayed flawlessly. While Talion isn't as nimble as his white-robed counterpart he still feels like a master of his trade, executing movement with graceful fluidity; effortlessly performing complex battle functions airs sublime even if Talion looks a bit like a bull maneuvering across a tightrope on tiptoe. The developer’s did wax extreme with the shininess of objects and character models. Uruk, the evolved orcs that form the backbone of Sauron’s army and that account for the vast majority of enemies you’ll encounter, tend to look constantly wet with the overdone effect. Metals benefit greatly as swords and axes glint in the light, but elsewhere the bloom effect is too much. Lighting is handled expertly with photorealistic sunshine breaking through the fog, providing a respite from the drab overtones. Character models are dripping with detail though clothing still looks like something out of the last console generation. Cloth and armor don’t move naturally and come off as being pinned to certain points on the model rather than the game attempting to simulate natural deformation. Minor animation deficits don’t detract heavily from the overall graphical appearance and they simply melt away in an open world that’s exploding with detail. Uruk strongholds are sprawling compounds with plenty of architecture to appreciate, containing oodles of hiding spots (and heads to chop off!) and high perches to maintain a stealthy approach. They’re a marvel to admire and the intricate design elements showcase just how much thought was put into the look of the game. Tall grass and shrubs used to fill in open spaces are cheap looking and detract from an otherwise pristine visual experience; grass especially looks like a 2D object forcibly shoved into a 3D world. Grappling with enemies contains some pop in when the game has to force interaction, evident while performing stealth kills that aren't initiated when directly in line with the enemy. You have to pick the game apart to notice these trivial complaints. You’re so absorbed in the gameplay that you barely notice the graphic hiccups and you’ll have to work hard to keep your eyes firmly in their sockets.

Sound

Shadow of Mordor binds great sound design to clanging swords topped with fantastic voice acting. The writing is subtle and nuanced even when awkward proper nouns are being spewed out in a constant stream. Par for the course, everyone has a British accent because that’s just what we deem appropriate in a fantasy video game. The different non-playable characters you come across are overflowing with personality with each valuable in differing ways. Conversations are short, meaning you never get to know the few folks you come across in any kind of deep and meaningful way; NPC’s are there to simply push the narrative along and provide Talion with special moves or obtuse motivations. Once their purpose has been served they’re discarded expeditiously. Overhearing enemies prattling on, as you slink around in the shadows, highlights the voice work. It’s a thrill to interrupt enemy conversations by swooping down from a perch to plunge your dagger into an Uruk’s neck, sending the congregation fleeing in horror and screaming for mercy. Stealth kills, especially those committed from a height, sound like they make far too much noise however. Slamming an enemy to the ground and ripping their throat out is auditory ear-hole candy but it’s a weird juxtaposition to the expectations of the mechanic. You anticipate every single time that your position will be immediately exposed making it hard to come to grips with stealth under certain conditions. These little gripes are nothing more than that, superficial complaints on issues that you really have to be looking for in order to notice to any degree. Stealth is handled aptly even if the most dramatic kills seem thunderous. Combat sparkles with tinny weapons ricocheting off each other and the script is read with conviction without appearing melodramatic. The reactive nature of the enemies turns a quiet scene into a mass of frightened warriors running for the hills as you cut a swath of death through rank and file. The total sonic aspects of the game compliment the gameplay in subtle, natural, and unobtrusive ways; Shadow of Mordor aligns itself with other games that set the gold standard in sound design.

GamePLay

The game starts off with Talion, a ranger responsible for guarding The Black Gate from invading forces coming out of Mordor, teaching his son how to wield a sword in a segment serving doubly as a tutorial for the basic controls. It’s a nice way of presenting necessary information without being a blunt “this is a tutorial” statement that so many games or fond of. The lesson is short and segues easily into introducing the story. For those out there who know Middle-earth legend as second nature the narrative should immediately make sense. For those of us who don’t, the game unloads a metric ton of exotic names and places and expects us to either figure it out (and fast) or forgo understanding the story in favor of playing with no sense of direction. Eventually you get a bead on who everyone is and why they’re important but it takes a while to get on track. Everything is swiftly explained after the surprisingly effortless final mission, but at first I was so damn confused I spent more time reading back lore in amounts I felt were unnecessary just to understand a story in a medium that’s known for being able to convey complex information skillfully. Either Monolith assumes we’re all a bunch of nerds recalling fiction we have intimate knowledge of or the writing team missed the mark by a few centimeters. You can tackle story missions as you wish though this method leads to the narrative unfolding in convoluted ways sometimes. The story does get in its own way and there’s only a veneer of intent as each NPC is segregated from the machinations of another. If you’re looking for a complex narrative look elsewhere, Shadow of Mordor is more concerned with fluid combat and tense action. The conclusion is brief yet satisfying; the end of the game sees you killing the Black Hand in a mind numbing QTE and I couldn't help feeling that Monolith had a hard time coming up with something more complex to regale us with a showy grand finale. Shadow of Mordor plays mostly like a near carbon copy of Assassin’s Creed; you spend your time sneaking around, silently executing enemies with your dagger or well-placed arrows to the face, hiding in bushes to keep a low profile, or scuttling up a structure to observe your surroundings from a better vantage point. The controls are generally tight but certain movements can be frustrating and unnecessarily difficult, especially attempting to change direction while climbing walls and other structural objects. Talion controls like a slightly clumsy Ezio and it’s not uncommon to botch an assault because you’re fighting against the controls. Enemy AI appears intelligent at first, calling for back up upon discovering a fallen friend or realizing your hiding spot, but the longer you play the more you recognize the AI isn't as natural as it seems. The rules of engagement are set in stone and once you figure out how to exploit the game it becomes far too easy. Early on staying alive can be a challenge, but not even halfway though you find yourself slicing through Sauron’s army with ease. Without a difficulty option, one I couldn't find one anyway, those looking for a challenge may find the game undemanding. The combat system appears a hot mess of button bindings but works surprisingly well once you memorize the controls. Special and finishing moves are executed by simultaneously pressing two face buttons at once; it sounds like it shouldn't work but once you get the hang of the controls combat becomes an exhilarating experience. Talion dances between enemies, hacking and slashing with beautifully animated grace. He can be observed traversing inhuman distances if an enemy is a length away when a finishing move is initiated, and pop-in is present when engaging a foe you’re not facing directly, but for its little flaws the combat is exceptional. Finishing moves are brutal and bloody, conveying a sense that Talion isn't some weakling relegated to silently picking off targets. Playing the game as a stealth title will keep Talion alive longer while simultaneously making most battles easier, and in the early game a shadowy approach is nearly a requirement. Another faltering point is the amount of moves at your disposal; not all of them are absolutely necessary and some of them are used so infrequently they could have been omitted outright and not harm the experience.

Each of your three weapons contain slots for runes, picked up after defeating one of the War Chiefs, that offer buffs to further increase Talion's power on top of those granted through the upgrade tree, so there is a bit of customization to tinker with. After leveling up your special moves, by spending currency collected after successfully completing side quests, objectives, and collecting hidden items, you can walk right into the thick of battle without hesitation. That’s not to say the game is easy throughout as you will come across extremely powerful adversaries who will certainly destroy you. Since Talion is kept alive by the Wraith, a spirit called to the mortal plane by Sauron (I think, the lore is so convoluted that I’m still not entirely sure about the fine details), death is never permanent nor does the game necessarily punish you for being killed. Enter the Nemesis System, one of the highlights of the game but one that doesn't quite feel as fleshed out as it could have been. Celebrimbor can forcefully extract degrees of intelligence from “worms”, any specially marked Uruk with a green icon over its head, that have an intimate knowledge of the War Chiefs. Worms can not only identify unknown leaders but also possess knowledge of immunities and methods for instant kills wherein Celebrimbor sucks the information directly from the Uruk’s brain in a very stylish manner.I found the system to be interesting at first but it felt underdeveloped the longer I played. Each War Chief is generated from a pool of possible variables such as “Flees when a caragor is present” or “Can be immediately killed with a stealth head shot” along with a bunch of physical items like heads, torsos, etc. It doesn't take long to observe the reuse of variables making the system appear constrained. Any Uruk can be culled from the world and made into a War Chief but the restrictions behind Nemesis generate leaders that aren't radically different. The farther you move along the less the system means as you continually “weaken” Sauron’s army which remains surprisingly, and apparently eternally, well stocked. The War Chiefs don’t react in real time to changing conditions and power vacuums either; you force the game to update the leader's positions and/or replacements by using the map or a Forge Tower to advance time, or by being bested in combat. This system can be exploited in a weird way by forcing a leader to increase in power by allowing him to exterminate you in the hopes that he will drop a rare weapon rune later on. In the early game the Nemesis System has the surface appearance of something truly ground breaking; watching the interplay of the War Chiefs as they vie for power among themselves gives the impression that there’s something massive bubbling within the game’s code. Once you realize that it’s nothing more than a set of rigid instructions it becomes meaningless, especially when a fully upgraded Talion becomes so grossly overpowered that seeking out additional weapon runes is unneeded. A bit of Nemesis is resurrected in the second half of the game as you supplant your own mind-controlled War Chiefs (Celebrimbor brands the Uruk’s face in a flashy display of power) to take down the army from the inside, but by that time the system became characterless and I found myself largely ignoring it. Since the system doesn't run in real time and offered little strategic value, I found no significance in initiating missions to increase the power of my own army and only engaged these missions out of boredom rather than necessity.

Final Thoughts

Having barely working knowledge of the Tolkien universe and it appearing no more than a reskin of Assassin’s Creed, I was surprised to find a game that’s easy to get lost in and that can support itself on its own merit. Shadow of Mordor clocked in at a shockingly short 30 hours of gameplay and my playthrough included completing every single side mission and a lot of time messing around killing stuff for no particular reason. I suspect that running only through the story missions alone would cut that time in half. You have the option to continue the journey by purchasing additional story content and, in an age when most companies make this content compulsorily necessary, it’s nice to see Monolith treating DLC as something completely optional. The game doesn't force you into buying tacked on parts to get the whole experience and the way DLC is presented made me want to check out the additional content only because the base game was solid and enjoyable. If the industry can get back on track with DLC being treated like this we’ll all be better off. The major problem with the game is that it spirals into a “been there done that, give me something different to do” rut. Side quests are derivative, timed trials, or have some arbitrary requirement that must be met in order to be completed: kill 15 Uruks with a combat finisher, kill 20 Uruks with head shots, kill 30 Uruks with stealth kills. After a while the optional quests felt stale, and they’re not exactly the most creative things to grace video games, but the fantastic combat system and even the underwhelming Nemesis System turns the game into a drug. You’re compelled to finish one more mission and before you know it you've been lost in the game for four hours straight. Just when you think you can’t take any more and you've done everything the game has to offer more than once, Shadow of Mordor bows out gracefully. Whatever diversity that is present in Shadow of Mordor is put through the ringer due to overuse, but the mechanics are stitched together in enough differing ways to provide hours of entertainment; Shadow of Mordor doesn't do much innovating, but what it does do it does well. If there is a multiplayer component available I’m not even aware of it and that’s nice to see in an industry that’s been shoving half-assed multiplayer down our throats, assuming all we want to do is “connect with our friends”. It’s not like games from more recent memory that blast multiplayer in your face, tugging you to log in and forget the fact that you dropped sixty bucks or more on something that really should have been a solitary experience (I’m looking at you Mass Effect 3). It’s nice to see a game confident enough in itself to not rely on cheap tricks to keep you engaged. Just when the game feels worn out and samey it guides you to the conclusion before it totally comes apart at the seams. The amazing graphics, solid performance, coding that doesn't crash or create massive frame rate drops, intense sound effects and adrenaline infused music all come together to create a title that’s a sheer joy to experience. Even if you’re not a Tolkein fan you’ll find this game to be just damn fun. When you strip out the few standout mechanics, Shadow of Mordor really is an Assassin’s Creed clone but one that has enough personality to set itself apart. It’s not exactly the most ground breaking title but if the Nemesis System can be expand upon, shaped into what I suspect Monolith originally envisioned, then the next inevitable go around will truly be revolutionary. Shadow of Mordor gives you just enough to keep you entertained even after the patina of excitement wears off. But enough of my rambling, I have an Uruk horde I need to terrorize.